United (If Only for a Day), Americans Celebrate Obama’s Triumph over Osama bin Laden

To have lived in Washington these past 10 years is to think of the White House as a walled fortress that is impossible to get into and—at least on one unforgettable autumn day—very dangerous to be too close to. So it was both shocking and giddily uplifting last night to see the cheering throng that flocked to the North Front, every bit as ebullient as the British crowds that pressed against the fence at Buckingham Palace on Friday for the much-ballyhooed royal wedding.

I happened to be watching the end of The American President on cable when my cell phone buzzed with the blast e-mail from the White House announcing a background briefing on an unspecified topic at 11:15. “Odd,” I thought, and switched from Encore to CNN to see Barack Obama speaking from the East Room in a stirring scene that even Aaron Sorkin could not have scripted. I’d been drowsing off, but was suddenly wide awake—for hours.

We don’t get much good news in Washington, and this was the very best kind. The president delivered it with an appropriate blend of calm sobriety and justifiable national pride. Even the sketchy early accounts made it clear that the daring raid on bin Laden’s walled compound in Pakistan was not some lucky break, but the result of years of painstaking intelligence and military tradecraft, by both the Obama and Bush administrations. On MSNBC this morning, even Dick Cheney was the soul of graciousness in making that point.

Precisely because bin Laden’s comeuppance is an American achievement, and not a partisan one, it seems tasteless even to talk of politics. Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be any one of the already not-so-exciting 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls today.

On the other hand, this signal victory may be almost as fleeting for President Obama as every other victory of his tumultuous tenure has turned out to be. He may be “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” this morning, but by next week he might be a Socialist milquetoast who leads from behind all over again. Can there be any doubt that whatever evidence the United States produces—photographs, DNA samples, real-time video—confirming bin Laden’s demise, some kind of “Deather” conspiracy movement will emerge, arguing that the jury must remain out?

That bin Laden was hiding not in a remote cave but in a suburban neighborhood just 60 miles outside Islamabad only confirms everyone’s worst suspicions about just how helpful the Pakistani government has been in the manhunt. Just as sobering is the uncomfortable, morally messy reality that some of the intelligence that led to this break came from interrogations at Gitmo. There will be world enough and time to ponder such questions in the weeks and months to come, as the war in Afghanistan that bin Laden started drags on.

Today, it may be enough just to savor the moment. When our 11-year-old daughter saw the television coverage of the cheering crowds outside the White House replayed on the news this morning, she demanded, “Dad, how late did those people stay there? Sasha and Malia have school today!” So they do, and from now on the history that they and my daughter learn will include the tale of a brave and remarkable raid in which a band of Navy Seals made the world a better place for the rest of us.